CIRCULUS' MEDIEVAL ACID FOLK "My Body Is Made of Sunlight -this is a song about the importance of magic mushrooms and revelations. Without them life is dull and meaningless." Circulus began in 1997 and have waited many years for the opportunity to record a full lenght album. Apart from a few self financed EP's and the mini-album Giantism in 1999, Circulus looked destined to be a band who would only be remembered as forgotten... Things changed though with the release of their debut album, "The Lick On The Tip Of An Envlope Yet To Be Sent", on Lee Dorrian's Rise Above Records. Emerging from in and around the London area, Circulus plays a unique firebrand style of progressive, acid influenced folk-rock, and can't be compared to any of the bands on the label's roster. "The Lick On The Tip Of An Envlope Yet To Be Sent" presents a considerable dynamic and stylistic range -from lyrical and pastoral-folk typified by 60's psychedelica and progressive rock to medieval using all kind of old string instruments. And Circulus' stunning debut is a strong contender for album of the year. Words | Michael Tyack Freak Emporium's Richard Allen offered us £1000 to record an album for his label Lightening Tree at the beginning of 2004. The dad of one of my guitar students was involved with an analogue studio in London called Barefoot and it was there that we recorded the backing tracks during two excessively hot days in July 2004. Marianne Segal from Jade ["A Fly On Strange Wings", 1970] joined us here for the track 'Swallow', a previously unreleased song of hers. Most of the songs were captured in one take as time was of the essence. Everything was recorded with five of us playing live onto two inch tape. No click tracks of course. We over-dubbed the wind instruments, a few moog runs and a few bits of guitar over two days about a week later. Then it all went wrong. The studio replaced it's beautiful analogue Jade consul with something digital which they couldn't ever get to work properly. This delayed us finishing the album by six months, as week after week went by. Then the studio closed due to a massive rent increase. We never signed a contract with Richard Allen and he didn't spend any of his money, so when Lee Dorrian offered us a record deal with Rise Above we jumped at the chance. Rise Above immediately found us an analogue studio in order to finish the album. In Febuary 2005 we spent five days at New Rising studios in the countryside near Cheltenham, layed down the vocals and mixed it. The album was at last finished. Miri It Is The oldest surviving fragment of English folk song dating from 1150. Inspired by the City Waites' version on their first album. We multitracked several crumhorns. The melody instruments are rauschepfiffe, recorder and moog. My Body Is Made of Sunlight This is a song about the importance of magic mushrooms and revelations. Without them life is dull and meaningless. We multi tracked the vocals to achieve the choral effects. The song shifts time signature between verses. We have just made a video for this song in Cornwall. The Scarecrow This song is about the inevitable folly of mankind. The track fades in because the engineer didn't press the record button in time. The chiming string instrument near the end is a cittern. Orpheus I used the Turkish saz for this track. It's a sort of long necked lute. Through a phaser. I originally intended it to be a more accurate copy of Monteverdi's original opening to what is recognised as the first ever opera, but I couldn't persuade anyone to learn it. So it ended up as a sort of jam. Ollie was very ill ill when he played his Moog part. He layed it down in one take and then collapsed. I think he is the best Moog player who has ever lived. We Are Long Lost A song about despair I suppose. This was all laid down live except the vocals and flute. I found the word Bitch a little bit difficult to sing. I don't really understand this song. Swallow This is Marriane's song. The band learned it in the studio and recorded it half an hour later. I overdubbed a cittern which is one of my Elizabethan instruments. It sounds a little bit like a banjo in the track. There's also a twelve string in there. This and 'Power to the Pixies' are the biggest productions on the album. The lead guitar break isn't supposed to sound like 'Everyone's A Winner Baby' by Hot Chocolate. It was an accident. The Aphid This is us just jamming. My Big Muff fuzz box wasn't working properly and crackles away throughout the track. We had to overdub Lo's vocal because there weren't enough microphones. Candlelight It's a shame we didn't have a little more time to mix this track. As a result it is only half as beautiful as it could have been. Oh well. Power To The Pixies I wrote this song to challenge people's pre-conceptions as to what you can and can't sing about. If anyone is annoyed by this song then fuck them, that's exactly what they deserve. If you go to Iceland you will find it hard to find someone who doesn't believe in pixies, so I have heard. This is my favourite song on the album. The guitar is in standard Renaissance lute tuning. It's a 1967 Epiphone Sorrento. For the solo at the end we put it through an old Vox AC30. Despite it's faults, I am very proud of this album and wish to express my warmest thanks to everyone who has been involved. Yours medievally Michael Tyack